This invention relates generally to designing of building structures, and more particularly to a processing system for processing building structural components. In the processing system, a building structure is designed with a CAD (Computer Aided Design) device, and thereafter the data of the CAD device is transferred to a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) device through a communication network such as a LAN (Local Area Network).
In conventional methods of construction, frameworks, roof trusses and floor trusses are constructed at a construction site with building structural components, which are precut in a factory based on specified dimensions and specified joint types. This precut system allows the processed building structural components to be assembled at construction sites without requiring any further process of these building structural components, so that a construction period is significantly reduced.
The building structural components are precut in the following sequence. First, data of the frameworks such as columns and beams to be arranged on a foundation, data of the roof trusses, data of the floor trusses, data of openings and material data are inputted into the CAD device. These data are stored as CAD data along with supplemental data (such as data of plotting manner, colors and others) that are previously provided in a CAD program. Among these stored CAD data, data required for precutting of the building structural components, such as shape data and material type data of the building structural components, are printed out on a sheet. Then, these required data are manually inputted into a precut CAD device from the printed data sheet. Furthermore, at this stage, additional data, such as data of joints, data of bolt holes for splicing fittings and data of slits, are also inputted into the precut CAD device. Among these data, the shape data, the material type data and the additional data are used as precut data.
These precut data are transferred from the precut CAD device to a precut CAM device arranged in the factory through a communication line. Then, the precut CAM device cuts the materials based on the shape data of each building structural component.
Since the material type data and the dimension data of each building structural component must be retrieved and printed out from the CAD device and then inputted into the precut CAD device, the operation is tedious and time consuming. Furthermore, if a designer changes the design of the building structure after reexamining the design or after considering customer""s request, the inputted CAD data should be modified. In such case, the data of the precut CAD device should also be modified, resulting tedious and time consuming modifying operation. Furthermore, these data are inputted into the precut CAD device by man power, so that there is always a possibility of input mistakes. Therefore, very careful data input work is required to avoid the input mistakes.
Furthermore, the changes in the design of the building structure after reexamining the design or after considering customer""s request are often made as a result of considering strength data or cost data of the building structural components after these data are computed. Therefore, these data must be computed separately, resulting additional work.
The present invention addresses these disadvantages. An objective of the present invention is to provide an integral processing system capable of designing the building structures, reexamining designs of the building structures, and processing the building structural components of the building structures based on the CAD data formed with a CAD device.
To achieve the objective of the present invention, a processing system for processing building structural components constituting a building structure includes a first station comprising: an input means for inputting at least shape data and relative position data of the building structural components; a two-dimensional diagram constructing means for constructing a two-dimensional diagram, wherein the two-dimensional diagram constructing means first constructs a virtual three-dimensional model of the building structural components based on the various data inputted from the input means and also supplemental data arranged in a CAD program, and then constructs the two-dimensional diagram by projecting selected building structural components, which are selected from the building structural components of the virtual three-dimensional model, onto a plane: a display means for displaying the two-dimensional diagram constructed by the two-dimensional diagram constructing means on a display screen; a storage means for storing CAD data for constructing the virtual three-dimensional model constructed by the two-dimensional diagram constructing means; and a strength computing means for computing strengths of the selected building structural components based on the CAD data retrieved from the storage means; and a second station comprising a processing means for processing each of the building structural components based on the CAD data retrieved from the storage means, wherein the processing means is interconnected with the first station through a communication line.
Alternatively, the processing system for processing building structural components constituting a building structure includes a first station comprising: an input means for inputting at least shape data and relative position data of the building structural components; a two-dimensional diagram constructing means for constructing a two-dimensional diagram, wherein the two-dimensional diagram constructing means first constructs a virtual three-dimensional model of the building structural components based on the various data inputted from the input means and also supplemental data arranged in a CAD program, and then constructs the two-dimensional diagram by projecting selected building structural components, which are selected from the building structural components of the virtual three-dimensional model, onto a plane; a display means for displaying the two-dimensional diagram constructed by the two-dimensional diagram constructing means on a display screen; a storage means for storing CAD data for constructing the virtual three-dimensional model constructed by the two-dimensional diagram constructing means; and a cost estimating means for estimating costs of the building structural components based on the CAD data retrieved from the storage means; and a second station comprising a processing means for processing each of the building structural components based on the CAD data retrieved from the storage means, wherein the processing means is interconnected with the first station through a communication line.